3250 miles later...

On Saturday my mom, my kids, and I (plus my friend Sarah and her three kiddos) thought it would be a brilliant plan to drive down the Florida Keys.

Our starting point was Ft. Lauderdale (I'm just too pooped to even BEGIN that story...). Our destination was Key West - a roughly three hour drive.

Where did we go wrong? In the hustle and bustle of the past week we didn't realize that it was, in fact, Memorial Day weekend, a holiday comprised of three critical elements: veterans, barbecues, and horrendous traffic.

Where else did we go wrong? Based on conclusions drawn from listening to songs about the Florida Keys, namely "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys, we assumed there might be actual beaches there.

Wrong.

I was so giddy as we passed this sign:

What a moron.

After a FOUR HOUR drive to the first key - Key Largo (...Montego, baby why don't we go...) - we figured we'd stop at the first beach we found, swim around for a bit, then drive back.

Wrong again!

The "beach" we found was more like a sandy parking lot, at the end of which was a rocky shoreline. Chancho had fun climbing their trees, though.

In summary, the Florida Keys might be fun if you are interested in driving a boat away from them. It was still an enjoyable day, but we knew where we really wanted to be...

We had one last afternoon on Sanibel Island before we said goodbye to Florida and its sunshine, turquoise water, white sandy beaches, and Cubans.

On Monday we flew from Ft. Myers, Florida to Seattle, Washington, a distance of 3250 miles. And I cried over every one of them. I felt like Bella Swan leaving the warmth of Phoenix for Seattle, only with more of a personality and less of a thing for overprotective dudes with rippling musculature.

(Sidenote: Yesterday was also Tess's third birthday. We celebrated by buying her strawberry Chapstick and some mermaid dolls from the Florida Keys, and eating cupcakes on the plane somewhere over Nebraska.)

Today was our first day in Seattle. I must be honest, the landscape is breathtaking.

We found a "beach."

Macey went all Katniss Everdeen:

And we even squeezed in a trip to Trader Joe's for some of those pistachio-encrusted dark chocolate toffee things.

Maybe now I can catch my breath.

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